DeGale, 27, was willing to mix it up with Bozic right from the off and despite the fight becoming messy at times, the clear better work was always coming from the champion who never lost a round on his way to a 16th win.
A couple of debatable low blows by ‘Chunky’ were the only sour points of a decent performance by the Olympic gold medallist as DeGale pummelled Bozic with bruising combinations until the veteran failed to show for the fifth round.
Severe facial injuries were a possible reason for the corner deciding to end the contest as Bozic had the beginning of what could have ended up looking like a swelling in the ilk of Denis Lebedev’s recent sickening wounds.
Bozic instead will now have saved himself an inevitable eight rounds of punishment from DeGale as his record drops to 26-7 and a possible final world title chance late in his career disappears.
On the undercard, heavyweight Hughie Fury, super-bantamweight Kid Galahad and middleweight Chris Eubank Jr. kept up their unbeaten records with first, fifth and eighth round stoppages respectively to all remain undefeated.
